Turn a 3-Core AMD Phenom 2 into a 4-Core
We received word that a Korean hardware review site has managed to turn a triple-core Phenom II X3 710 into a 4 core CPU.
Apparently, the quick switcheroo requires a Biostar motherboard says the site, but customers boards that have the same BIOS options can try the same technique out. The BIOS option to enable the 4th core is called Advanced Clock Calibration, and when set to Auto, turns on the 4th core.
From our experience, when AMD or Intel ships a processor with a core disabled at manufacturing, it's because the disabled core isn't performing up to snuff with the other core(s). We'd be interested in knowing if users experience any bugs with the 4th core enabled.
The processor shows up with 4 cores in Windows, and according to benchmarks posted by the site, the 4th core had a real impact on scores. Those with 3-core Phenom II's, try this out!
(Images courtesy of: playwares.com)



The thing is, in order to make the 3 core processor, AMD has to test a processor bad. With millions of the things running down the line, they are probably testing a few samples from a batch (this is industry practice right?). So if one is testing bad, they just take the whole batch down to three cores. That means others in a batch are still good. I wonder if the same isn't achievable with non-biostar boards?
sometime they because of demand they are forced to ship what would have been 4 cores as 3 cores, but they don't want to lower their 4 core prices, but can't produce enough of them for the demand so they will quietly ship the good 4 core ones as 3 core ones. this happens.
so people should try and then run extensive testing of the core. maybe it had a small flaw the results in periodic errors or errors only with certain operations. one just has to test, test, test.
That would be true unless the 4th core is actually failing their tests. So instead of throwing the whole thing away, why not sell it as a 3-core for less? They end up making a lot more money that way because they're selling what they would otherwise call "garbage".
Its the same way the Radeon 4870 and 4850 are the same chip, but the 4870 is higher-clocked and uses much faster GDDR5 memory. Re-tooling the production line is where the cost in incurred. The more products you can make out of a single process, the better.
Chip makers have for ages been using a single chip and making minor mods to create different products. The old Intel Celeron was just a Pentium with some cache disabled. A Core i7 920 and 975 Extreme are essentially the same chip, the 920 just has a small, locked multiplier while the much more expensive extreme just has an unlocked multiplier.
LOL!
Sort of amusing. But I guess it does sort of make sense. But the fact that simply setting "Auto" on your motherboard causes the 4th core to activate would suggest AMD didn't do a very good job in disabling the potentially bad core.
Or, you could turn around and say, wonder how much cash Intel is throwing down the drain by junking all the chips that don't have 100% stability on all 4 cores. (though right now it seems that Intel just might have that kind of money to waste...)
I also agree w/ blackpanther that AMD probably don't care whether or not we try to enable the 4th core. At best this may actually help their sales from people willing to experiment with things. People who actually NEED a quad core will still buy quad cores, as an X3 has absolutely no gurantee the 4th core would work.
AMD probably wouldn't have made the X3 line if none of the chips had an actual bad core. So be aware that this may be a great way to destroy an X3 if it really did have a bad core.
More than a few people turned a good, fast 9500 into a garbled, artifact spitting, unrecognizable 9700 by enabling 4 bad pixel pipelines with a softhack.